Promise (10)
That is…
Confirming the form that had sprung from the ring, I wore an ambiguous expression.
“A cat…?”
It wasn’t just any cat. It was a tiny kitten with pure white fur.
Not an NPC, but a cat?
I could only blink, at a complete loss for how to react to this situation, while the kitten that had emerged from the moonstone stretched its body out long in a luxurious yawn and began licking its front paw.
I stared blankly for a moment before snapping back to my senses and forcing my voice out with effort.
“Help me… a little…”
It must have heard me, because the creature looked my way.
Its vivid blue eyes shone like jewels.
“My pocket… hey!”
I was about to ask the cat to bring the combat rations in my pocket to my mouth, but it didn’t even finish listening before scampering off somewhere with a rapid patter-patter.
I was already in agony, and shouting only made it feel as though my spine really would snap.
What the hell is that thing?
Resigning myself, I watched what it was doing. The cat was climbing the body of the Eye Giant, which hung impaled and motionless on the icicle.
What on earth was it trying to do?
I kept watching, and before long the creature had reached the Eye Giant’s forehead.
Is it after the gem?
Was it going to try biting the gem with its own teeth?
Those tiny little teeth didn’t look like they could even leave a scratch.
That was what I thought—until I saw the creature press its own forehead against the gem.
For an instant I thought it was offering a moment of mourning for the Eye Giant’s death.
Then the gem embedded in the forehead pulled free of the Eye Giant’s body and floated up into the air.
“……!”
Had it just… extracted a monster’s gem?
It had that kind of ability?
What the hell is that thing?
Even I, the conqueror of every zone, had never seen or heard of anything like this.
Was it a legendary-class monster with an ability, just like the Eye Giant?
But for a monster, that tiny kitten body showed no sign of any gem.
All that remained was the moonstone ring, now dull and lifeless like a plain rock after the creature left it, sitting forlornly on my finger…
In the meantime the cat took the Eye Giant’s gem in its mouth and leapt lightly down.
The instant the cat landed softly on the ground, the Eye Giant’s body toppled sideways along with the icicle, crashing down with a tremendous noise.
I flinched and screwed up my face against the cloud of dust and wind its fall kicked up. When I opened my eyes again, the cat holding the gem was right in front of me.
It hadn’t fed me the combat rations the way I wanted, but judging by how it had helped me defeat the Eye Giant, it had clearly appeared to aid me.
“Thanks… mph?!”
Something was shoved into my mouth just as I tried to offer my gratitude.
The creature had crammed the Eye Giant’s gem—still held in its mouth—straight into mine without the slightest ceremony.
“What are you—!”
The gem in my mouth dissolved into blue particles and vanished.
At the same moment, pain far worse than a broken spine surged through me, and I blacked out on the spot.
When I came to, the ceiling was a familiar one.
It was the exact same hospital room where I had previously lain after being shot by a Unicorn Area player.
“Haydam, sir!”
The first thing I saw was Bones bolting upright from his seat, oddly enough with a comb still in his hand.
Next into view came Lucas, Platon, and ShutInHubby in that order.
Lucas asked me,
“Are you conscious, sir?”
My throat felt like it was splitting open when I tried to answer; I had no idea how long I’d been lying there.
“Water…”
The moment the word left my mouth, two people bolted out of the room.
One was Lucas, racing off to fetch a doctor; the other was Platon, hurrying after him to bring water.
ShutInHubby poured water from a kettle into a glass, held it out to me, and said in a tone of pure disbelief,
“What the hell does that idiot think he’s been drinking this whole time?”
I was dumbfounded that ShutInHubby would openly trash-talk an officer right in front of Bones.
Bones, however, wore the completely unimpressed face of someone who had long since gotten used to it.
What happened while I was out cold?
The water ShutInHubby offered turned into blue particles the instant it touched my lips and vanished; a moment later the dryness was gone.
“Haydam, sir, are you in any pain?”
“Uh…”
Right up until I lost consciousness my entire body had hurt, but now that my eyes were open—
I felt no pain at all.
If anything, something far more powerful than before was stirring inside me.
“How long have I been in here?”
“Today makes exactly one week, sir.”
One week?
Even if I had been unconscious for a full week, the injuries I’d taken were never the kind that would heal in that time…
Did ShutInHubby have a hand in the treatment?
If ShutInHubby had treated me, that would at least explain why Bones was overlooking the guy’s attitude.
“The Command—no, Father?”
“He is unharmed, sir. Lucas has gone to call a doctor, so His Excellency will soon learn that you have awakened.”
I let out a breath of relief at the news that everyone was safe.
It made sense, of course.
With the Eye Giant dead the blizzard would have stopped, so rescue work wouldn’t have been difficult.
I wonder what happened to Team 2’s leader…
I had been about to ask what had gone on while I was out when I suddenly sat bolt upright and checked my hand.
Luna Moon’s ring still sat on my finger, giving off its usual dull light.
The difference was that it was no longer loose the way it always had been; it had shrunk to a perfect fit for my finger.
I stared at the ring for a moment, then asked Bones,
“When you rescued me… did you happen to see anything like a cat?”
“A cat, sir?”
Bones looked completely baffled, as if he couldn’t fathom why I would ask such a thing.
“I was hospitalized myself at the time of the rescue, so I don’t know the details. But I never heard any reports of anyone seeing a cat-type monster.”
I had asked if he’d seen something like a cat, and of course he assumed I meant a monster.
Well, it was true that no ordinary cat would be living at the bottom of a cliff like that in this age.
The cat I had seen had looked every bit like a perfect little kitten, but given the strange ability it displayed, it was probably closer to a monster.
“The way you’re talking about cats the second you wake up, I guess you’re still not all there.”
At ShutInHubby’s muttered remark, Bones finally scowled properly this time.
“Haydam, sir, is that guy always this insolent?”
“More importantly, why is he even here? And why are all of you here?”
“We were hospitalized here as well, sir.”
Now that he mentioned it, Bones was wearing a patient’s gown.
Platon and Lucas, who had dashed out earlier, had looked like they were in patient gowns too…
ShutInHubby was in military uniform, so he must have made it safely back to the zone with Meursault.
Just then ShutInHubby took another step closer and said with smug triumph,
“You should be thanking me, Haydam.”
He looked ready to swagger about having treated me, and since I had in fact received help I was about to offer my thanks when he added,
“I’m the one who found you.”
“You’re the one who found me?”
“Yeah! How else would anyone have known to go looking for some random cave on a cliff like that?”
I had assumed they searched the area with drones because they knew roughly where I’d fallen and then pulled me out.
Had ShutInHubby given them the exact location?
But even I had never seen that cave before.
“How did you know about that cave?”
“Because I know that cliff.”
A cliff he knows?
I stared at him with a look of pure disbelief, but ShutInHubby’s face said that was the entire explanation.
When I glanced at Bones, he only shrugged as if he had no idea either.
“He’s a weird bastard, right? We asked him how he knew too, and all he would say was that it was a cliff he knew.”
That ShutInHubby guy… maybe he fell off that cliff himself sometime while playing the game before.
“Then… who treated me?”
“Treated you?”
ShutInHubby and Bones exchanged a brief look, then spoke in turn.
“Nobody treated you.”
“When they found you, I heard your clothes were a little torn but you were otherwise fine.”
“That’s why the whole zone is going crazy right now.”
“They’re calling you the Miracle of the Crevasse, sir.”
The… Miracle of what?
The Miracle of the Crevasse?
That wasn’t even funny…
“So why the cat? Is it important?”
“That’s—”
“Haydam, sir!”
I had been about to give ShutInHubby a half-hearted answer when the doctor Lucas had brought appeared and ordered all non-medical personnel out, so we couldn’t continue the conversation.
The Commander arrived exactly ten minutes later.
“Haydam!”
He came to me with every emotion laid bare in a way I had never seen before and pulled me into his arms.
It was a careful embrace, all the strength held back in case I was still hurting.
The arm holding me trembled faintly.
Somehow I feel guilty…
It was so completely unlike his usual cool reaction of “You’ll recover anyway, won’t you?” that I finally realized he had been quietly hiding how worried he was about me all this time.
The Commander released me and spoke without even pausing for breath.
“Never do anything that reckless again.”
“…….”
When I stayed silent instead of answering, the Commander looked at me with eyes that had turned truly fearful.
“Please… I’m begging you. If something had happened to you out there, how am I supposed to face Luna Moon when I die…?”
His voice was shaking.
“Please, Haydam. Promise me you’ll never do that again. You’re a regressor, not an immortal!”
Nothing the Commander said was wrong.
I was a player, not an immortal.
There wouldn’t be any problem with answering that I would be careful from now on.
I had learned the hard way that getting arrogant and relying too much on my abilities could get me killed, so maybe the smart thing would be to stay somewhere safe, diligently take the heir’s lessons, and continue the clear that way.
Without the ring’s power I probably would have gotten a game over right there.
But that was exactly why I had to answer like this.
“I can’t do that.”
“Haydam!”
“I already made a promise to Mother.”
The Commander, who had been about to say something more, fell silent the moment the word “Mother” left my mouth.
“A promise… you say?”
“When I regressed, I swore on Mother’s grave. That in this life I would definitely protect Father. So if I can’t protect you, then the regression itself is meaningless.”
At my words the Commander’s face went blank with speechlessness.
What person wouldn’t be left speechless upon hearing that his ten-year-old son had regressed just to save him?
“Haydam…”
The Commander managed to open his mouth to say something, but with perfect timing the doctor opened the hospital room door and announced that visiting hours were over.
“It has only been a short while since he regained consciousness, so rest for both body and mind is the highest priority right now. I understand how worried you must be, of course, but he needs to rest.”
At the doctor’s explanation the Commander reluctantly left me with a farewell and exited the room.
After the doctor and nurses had all left as well, reminding me to press the call button if anything was wrong—
I muttered under my breath.
“…That’s the answer you wanted, isn’t it?”
A flicker of light passed over the moonstone of the ring as if it had been struck dead-center, then faded.
“I gave you the answer you wanted, so come out already and explain.”
I raised my hand, pressed it to the ring, and whispered.
“What exactly did you do to me?”